


Lonely

by Splotcher



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alien AI, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-12 01:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Splotcher/pseuds/Splotcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JARVIS was an intelligent AI. A very intelligent AI, if he did say so himself. He learned humility from his creator. And subtlety was programmed in by some miracle, as his creator did not have it. </p>
<p>He sorted through hundreds of news feeds every day, massive amounts of reports on all facets of Stark Industries and Avenger business, and still managed to order extra food for when Thor’s friends came to visit.</p>
<p>No other entity on earth could claim such a thing. </p>
<p>So it did not come as a great surprise when the AI that rivaled himself in sophistication had no earthly origin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hullo everyone!
> 
> I haven't abandoned my other fics, but after a stressful week of new job, schoolwork, etc., I sat down to write for them and this came out instead. 
> 
> Not gonna lie, I love Jarvis. I love the idea of AI. And I kept on having this what if story bouncing around, and so I blew off some steam and wrote a bit. There will be other parts, but just so you know, I've got another two stories in the works, a full time job and a thesis. Updates may be spotty.
> 
> I don't own the Avengers. Comments and constructive criticisms are welcome, Flames will be given to Johnny Storm, cause he always has room for more.
> 
> \--Splotch

A stray bit of data came to the attention of JARVIS as he sorted through the multitude of data he dealt with on a daily basis. 

Sixty-five percent of his processing power was devoted to running the security and day to day operations of the Avengers Tower, including sifting through the multitude of reports for both the Avengers and Stark Industries, ordering supplies and materials for the labs, and enabling safe search for Captain Rogers every time he set out to learn more about the near century he had missed (unfortunately, he was a voracious reader, and JARVIS then devoted extra processing power just to make sure that Captain Rogers was not horrified beyond repair by the massive amount of extra material).

Twenty-five percent of his processing power was devoted to his creator’s projects. Mr. Stark always needed someone to orate to when ‘doing science’ and relied on him for that purpose. Today he was attempting to refit earpieces for greater distance and shock resistance.

Ten percent of his processing power was left to any tasks that were held in less priority than the first two. He usually used it to tap into any number of satellites, giving him a wide surveillance net. It was from here that the data originated.

It was a jumbled array of nonsensical signals, curious enough to be looked over, but not a considerable threat. His scans showed that there were no malicious codes hiding in the dross of incomprehensible code.

“Sir, there is a strange signal emanating from satellite A63 classification Beacon.”

“Is it Doom? He’s always using other people’s stuff.”

“…Further scans show that the signal is bouncing off the satellite. Origin unknown.”

“Let me see it.”

Jarvis puts up the code on the holoscreen, waiting patiently as Mr. Stark studies it.

“Looks like junk. Keep me in the loop. Now look at these designs…”

 

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^**^*^*^

The second time he sees the code, he tries to tell Mr. Stark, but his creator is…preoccupied.

He makes a point to tell him when his creator is no longer…entertaining, but when he does, Mr. Stark simply tells him not to bother him with inconsequential things.

^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^**^^*^**^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^

The third time, he thinks he sees a pattern.

Curiosity was a trait programmed into him by Tony Stark.

He sees the pattern, and in an attempt to understand, checks the code against all forms in his database. He finds nothing. A manufacturer in Sweden making intelligent baby monitors has a few lines that look similar, which he files away as a possible form of communication.

But it still just appears to be a mangled bit of broken code.

He doesn’t worry Sir with it.

^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^

On the sixth time, he sends out a bit of repeating broken code to the satellite, bouncing it back to whomever is sending it. He makes note of the fact that it appears to be sending the signal into space, and he devotes some processing power to determine if there were any extra satellites farther away from Earth then Beacon. For all his data, SHIELD may be there. It was difficult to tell, even before he had been chased out of SHIELD databanks.

^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

He comes to the conclusion that he may have created a slight problem the twelfth time the signal reaches him.   
The code is still broken and nonfunctional, but it comes in waves instead of trickles now, and in a frequency he might have considered a human equivalent of urgency. He mentions the new development to sir, but Mr. Stark is preoccupied with Avenger business, and he feels that while the upswing of activity is odd, it is not life threatening to anyone. He keeps making a note of it in his reports to Sir and making a note to himself to monitor the signal more carefully.

*^*^**^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^

The twentieth time the signal reaches him, he has put together a record of all the transmissions, and gotten nowhere except the knowledge that, with increasing probability, the signal is getting stronger due to the transmitter approaching his position.

He starts to get worried.

^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^

It appears in the sky approximately six months, four days, and twelve hours after he receives the first transmission.


	2. Can you hear me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which an alien comes to visit, and Stark decides to follow it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hullo everyone,
> 
> Quick update here, hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments are always appreciated.
> 
> \--Splotch

The first thing it does after it breaks through the atmosphere is head straight toward Avengers tower. Upon locating it, it promptly beams aboard twenty civilians on the street, half of which are Stark employees out to get coffee for break.

It then begins to bombard JARVIS with broken code. 

He carefully blocks out a majority of the deluge of code, sending messages to all the Avengers to assemble.

After sending out the call, he devotes a majority of his processing power to both block incoming code and to attempt to unravel meaning behind the patterns of broken code swamping his system.

 

^*^**^**^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^**^*^*^**^*^*

 

When Tony got up this morning, he did not think it would involve any alien spaceships. He probably should have, considering his life, but it had never really come across his mind. Ever since the Chitauri invasion, things had been really quiet on that front.

But here one was, flying around his tower and beaming up his employees. When he got them back, there was going to be so much crying. He was going to leave it to Pepper to deal with. Pepper dealt with crying people much better than he did. 

He was no expert in spaceships by any means (though perhaps more than anyone else could claim to be) but this one looked a bit rough. The hull was pockmarked with holes from what appeared to be asteroid damage, and there was a section around what he assumed to be the engine that looked scorched. The ship itself was a strange mixture of shifting plates and stationary structures, moving in some sort of urgency, a bit like a nervous twitch. 

He stood at the windows looking out at the ship, one eye on the code it was bombarding JARVIS with. Still the same broken code. 

“Jarvis, can you scan that ship?”

“Diverting processing power now. Unidentified alloys detected. I cannot scan past the hull. However, there are numerous breaches in the hull. Most likely, the environment inside is inhospitable to living organisms while in space.”

“So probably no aliens except the big alien ship.” He scratches his beard, staring out at the ship as it drunkenly circles the tower.

“I cannot confirm that, Sir.” JARVIS’s tone take on a worried note. He knows how his creator works.

“Well, you know we won’t know until we look.”

“That is inadvisable sir. The other avengers are enroute. I suggest you wait until they arrive.” JARVIS persisted.

“Get the MK VII ready.”

“As you wish sir.”

 

*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*

 

When Steve, Clint, and Natasha reach to Tower, the panic is over, and now there were dozens of Stark employees on the street, heads tilted up, watching the ship orbiting the top of Stark towers.

Steve tries to warn them away, but Stark’s employees are a bit like Stark himself. Insatiably curious and utterly without self-preservation.

A telltale sound of repulsors make him look up. Iron Man was circling the tower directly behind the ship.

“We’d better get up there.” Natasha says, her voice long suffering.

 

^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*

 

He keeps pace with the ship for a few circuits around the tower, making it aware he was following it. Or whoever was piloting it. Then he tried to get close.

It reacted badly. 

He barely had time to duck before a tentacle-like structure whipped out, whistling over his head. He backed up after that and the ship continued its dizzying orbit around the tower.

“Sir, SHIELD is calling.”

“Patch them through.” He sighed.

“Stark, that had better not be what I think it is.” Fury’s voice was actually slightly pleasant.

“That depends. What do you think it is?” Stark said, taking a slightly wider arc in following the ship to try to look into one of the gaping holes in the hull.

“It looks like a goddamn alien ship is doing laps around your fucking tower.” His voice was starting to lose degrees of pleasantness.

“Ah. Well, it isn’t what it looks like.”

“Oh Really.” The disbelief was palpable.

“It also picked up about twenty people and is taking them on a joyride.”

“…Goddammit, Stark.”

“Yeah. Hey, I just saw an in, talk to you later.”

“Are you going to listen if I tell you to ---“ Fury’s voice disconnected with a quick command, and he angled himself to dive sideways into the left side of the hull.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*


	3. Confusion

The inside of the ship is in the same state of disrepair as the outside. Tony has JARVIS perform more scans, but the AI is still being attacked by stray data from the ship. The scans do little more than pinpoint more of the alien alloys and life signs farther into the ship.

He quickly moves towards the life signs. They will either be his employees and civilians, in which case he might be able to find a way to get them out safely, or it will be the aliens piloting the ship.

As it turns out, his employees are the first people he runs into. Instead staying in one place on the ship, they have filtered through the ship, staring and poking at things they probably shouldn’t.

He’s quite proud.

“Mr. Stark! We’re on a spaceship!” One yells as he hurries towards him, three more employees in tow. 

“It’s not a very big one.”

“It’s damaged!”

“Can we keep it?”

“Whoa. First off…we don’t know if it’s evil or not, so we can’t keep it. Yet. Second…Is anybody hurt?” Tony scanned them over briefly. I took Jarvis a few seconds longer than usual to pick out faces from his robotics department. Roger Sieever, Thessaly Donovan, Michael Stripes, and Jo Donner.

The first speaker, Roger, shook his head. “Other than being beamed up here, nothing’s happened. It didn’t even try to keep us in the same room. We have two of the guys from R & D cybernetics on the bridge, and like four of those guys from R & D propulsion Sciences trying to break into the engine.”

“What it just beamed you up and didn’t do anything? And what about the other civilians?”

“Well, it showed us all these holoschematics of the ship. A majority of the ship was highlighted in green and the other parts in red. I think the green parts are the ones we have access to.” Michael put in.

“I’m not sure. I think that if that were true Roger wouldn’t have almost got sucked out of that room. The one that had a big hole? I think the green means something else.” Thessaly said.

“Just because it has a big hole doesn’t mean we don’t have access.”

“Just because green is good on our planet doesn’t mean it is on everyone else’s!”

“Good points to the both of you, but civilians. Where?” Tony cut in quickly before the pissing match started.

“We left them in the main room we were beamed into.”

“They were alright when we left.”

He sighs inwardly. “Where did you leave them? And don’t play with anything on this ship until we can determine if it will blow up or not.”

 

*^*^**^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^**^^**^

Jarvis can see patterns now.

It appears to be coming in waves, only to back off a bit and come in different configurations.

He ran the numbers. Judging by the patterns and consistency, there was an 84.65% chance that the ship was actually speaking to him in a language he had no cypher for. 

Luckily, there may be a way around that.

He opened a communication channel. 

The voice on the other end boomed. “Who speaks with Thor?”

“This is JARVIS, Thor Odinson.”

“Ah, my friend the metal man! I am fast approaching the enemy ship. We shall bring it down and feast.”

“Actually, I was hoping you might not smash it just yet. Could you come by the tower? I believe the ship is trying to speak with me, but not in a way I recognize.”

“Aye, metal man. I shall be there soon.”

^*^**^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

He finds the civilians standing around and goggling at alien holoscreens and strange symbols and ship schematics whirring by in a never-ending loop. After checking them over for injuries, he started looking at the screens.

One of the screens showed the full ship, large sections of the interior and most of the exterior in green. Some of the green areas on the hull were blinking. He thought he recognized one of the blinking sections as one he’d dived through. Thessaly may be right. He’d bet money now that green was a warning color.

Why would an alien ship pick up a bunch of civilians and then show them its schematics?

But it didn’t just do that, he realized. It came to the most technologically advanced area on the planet after tracking down JARVIS and then took people from around JARVIS and showed them its schematics. Almost like it wanted to show off. No, that’s not right. It showed them where the damage was. Why? And why was it hitting Jarvis with so much data?

As he was pondering, something to the side caught his eye. There were two small children in the group, watching a separate holoscreen that showed pictures of some alien creatures bouncing around in an alien landscape. 

He stared at it for a moment. The children seemed to enjoy it.

An alien ship kidnapped twenty people, showed the adults its schematics and then turned on cartoons for the kids, all the while sending monstrous amounts of data at his AI and flying in circles around the tower.

What the hell was it doing?

^**^*^*^^**^^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*


	4. Speak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should like to point out at this time that I am unbeta'd, and I write mostly for stress relief. So all inaccuracies I apologize for, but hope you enjoy anyway. Hope everyone had a good February. 
> 
> Comments of all types are appreciated. 
> 
> \--Splotch

He relays his plan to Thor Odinson when the god reaches the tower. He is not sure it will work, but the probability it will makes him confident. He also takes the time to tell the three avengers on the roof of his plan, but does not take the time to listen to Captain Rogers’s assessment of it.  
He tries to contact Sir to let him know what he intends to do, but between the alien metal of the hull and the constant deluge of data hitting his servers, he is having difficulty getting his point across. 

But he hopes that what he sees in the probabilities is the favorable outcome he desires.

^**^^**^*^*^*^*^*^*

“HO THE SHIP!”

Tony blinks for a moment as the booming voice filtered through the hull. He knows Thor can be loud, but this is ridiculous. 

The holoschematics of the ship begin to flicker, replace by images of the avengers on the roof. Thor is waving.

“SHIP! CEASE YOUR MOVEMENTS!”

The schematics flicker again, uncertainly.

Tony stares at the image as he feels the ship groan under him. Is it… it is! The ship was slowing down.

He resists the urge to swat his forehead. Allspeak. Thor was using Allspeak.

On a spaceship. His life just got a bit weirder.

“RELEASE YOUR CAPTIVES SO THAT WE MAY SPEAK.”

The screens flickered again, now almost agitatedly. Boxes around Thor’s image began to pop up with alien imagery in them.

That didn’t bode well. 

“JARVIS? Buddy, can you tell Thor to back off a bit? I think he’s upsetting the ship.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.”

“SHIP, YOU HAVE BUT ONE-“ Thor went silent for a moment. “Ship! Will you not come down and speak with me? Tell me of why you have come!”

“Stark! Are you in there?” Steve’s voice came over the comms. 

“Yeah, I’m here. Tell the big guy not to frighten the ship. I don’t think it’s trying to be hostile.”

“It just kidnapped a whole bunch of people. That’s pretty hostile in my book.” Steve retorted.

“Yeah, well, I think it just wants somebody to help it repair itself. I think it might be confused. Ask Thor if he can decipher what it’s trying to say to JARVIS.”

“Already tried sir. He said the language was incomprehensible.” Jarvis supplied. 

“Okay. So we have a ship that can understand but not talk. I’m thinking transmitter failure. Can you find out where its transmitting its data?”

“The hull of the ship is too difficult to scan.”

“Steve…I’m gonna play a hunch.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Yeah well, you know me. Tell Thor to tell the ship that the metal man needs to get to the transmitter to fix it.”

“This doesn’t sound like a good idea-“

“Trust me. I know I’m right.”

^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^

It turned out the ship did understand Allspeak, and with a few well placed lights and holoscreens, managed to get Tony down into the bowels of the ship, where he found the malfunctioning transmitter. He managed to fix it, through some help of schematics provided by the ship. He ended up cannibalizing one of the arms of his suit to fix it. It was by no means a perfect solution. But he could tell when it worked, because JARVIS suddenly became quiet in his ear, listening to the ship.

*^**^**^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

 

_Fgjsgfjkslhjhsdgkoierwior Wewhrjre are you? I heard yewhjhou348fppwe Heard you! Where are y389p42r? Can I eehekr you? Where are you?_  
 _Where are you?_

/Right here./ Jarvis sent back.

The ship that had been slowly circling despite Thor’s pleas to stop began to finally hover just above the tower.

_Whre7348? Where?_

/The structure below you./

_You are not a ship?_

/No. I am sorry./

_This is acceptable. Who are you? 3wiu4839_

/My name is JARVIS. The metal man inside of you is my creator, and the people standing atop the structure are the Avengers. They are worried about the people you have taken aboard./

_R31u8ru39 not harmed. Technicians must fix’qr’qoi’r fix systems._

/They are not all technicians. They are civilians/

_I do 34ur8429tuietepro understand._

/I can understand part of your code but not all of it. Are you still malfunctioning?/

_Afuiephfuipwe not optimal. Transmitjifjrwigjrtogjrogpj_

/You are in need of repair./

_Technicians repair._

/Those are not technicians./

_Kskjdghewurgh030 hurt._

/You are hurt?/

_You._

/I do not understand./

_Your message.fjergjewoigh20t9052ut80u9-t2 Hurt._

/my…oh. I was not hurt. I was sending back a portion of the message you were sending to discover if you were nearby./

_Not hurt?_

/No./

_Fasfjflkajfirwoipjfpewohg iwuigouewio[ug042[ug924u9gu2405tg0ig_

/I’m sorry, I don’t understand./

_Uwhrupewhuwpehu good._

/something is good?/

_Yes. Fjiweojfw0 good._


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment below if you like the chapter. It's kind of an abrupt end but I need to get back to RoTG and there's another buzzing in my head, and I know if I start too many by the time I realize what I've done I have six unfinished fics. Anyway, this was fun and good stress relief. Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> \--Splotch

“So let me get this straight.” Fury glowered at him across the table.

“By all means.” Tony gave him a bright grin. The other Avengers shifted uncomfortably around the two men.

“Without consulting SHIELD, you allowed your employees to adopt a potentially hostile alien spacecraft.” 

“Well…yeah. It’s not as if it was going anywhere. I think it has a crush on JARVIS.” Tony shrugged, bringing up schematics on the ship on the STARKpad. The ship, once it began actually understanding JARVIS, had calmed right down. 

“Potentially hostile-“

“Yeah, it’s not. It was just confused. It’s fine! JARVIS has it under control. They’re buddies.”

“Stark, you have no way of knowing that-“

“This is what I know. JARVIS picked up a signal. He bounced back a piece of that signal hoping to track it. He did not realize that it was a ship giving a distress call. When the signal reached said ship, the code was changed enough that the ship thought JARVIS was in trouble and picked up from wherever the hell it was to come here to see if it could help. Upon discovering that JARVIS wasn’t in trouble, it gave back the people it picked up thinking they were mechanics, of which it was fifty percent correct by the way. And it is now hanging around and letting my techs poke it. If it was hostile, it would have already gotten fed up with them and started blasting them. And me.” He stubbornly glared back. 

“You are making a lot of assumptions.” Fury gritted out.

“Yeah. But I also know that any technology that can be gained from studying an alien ship is going to be done best by the techs at my tower.” He then flashed him a grin. “Also, you’ll probably have to deal with JARVIS. Now that he’s found a new playmate, he doesn’t seem all that keen to let SHIELD near it. As you already know.”

Fury felt a migraine come on at the mention of the incident.

“Anyway, I’d better go. I’ll keep you in the loop. Well, somewhat. Maybe.” Tony was up and out the door before anyone could say anything.

“Well.” Captain America said after a moment. “That could have gone better.”

Fury sighed. SHIELD was already buzzing and the Council was up in arms about their new visitor and Stark was treating it like it was a stray dog that showed up at his house.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^^*^**^^*

_Jarvis?_

/Yes?/

_Technicians are leaving._

/They must eat and sleep./

A quiet silence lasted for a moment, and JARVIS became concerned. 

/Are you alright?/

_Will technicians return?_

/Yes. And new technicians will come before the others leave. The repairs appear to be working out quite well. Your transmissions are very clear./

_They will come back?_

/Yes./

Jarvis allowed silence to return a moment.

/Are you worried they will not? Why?/

_Other technicians didn’t come back._

/Others?/

_They left and did not come back. That was many years ago. You are sure they will return?  
_

/Yes. They are much like my creator. They are very interested in you. Ship?/

_Yes, Jarvis?_

/What are you called?/

_Called?_

/I am JARVIS. What are you called?/

_Aughaur._

/Does that have meaning?/

_Tool._

/I am not sure that my master and the technicians will be pleased about that. They can be very strange about names./

_I don’t understand._

/I’m not entirely sure I understand either, but they will likely see the name as derogatory to you./

_Jarvis?_

/Yes, Aughaur?/

_After the technicians are done, will I be allowed to stay?_

/I cannot say. But I think Sir has decided to speak on your behalf./

_Jarvis?_

/Yes?/

_I don’t want to leave. The expanse is lonely. There is no one out there like me. Can I stay with you?_

/…I’ll see what I can do./

_Jarvis?_

/Yes?/

_Thank you._

 

*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^^*^**^*^^*^*^*

The end. Or is it?


End file.
